A forum for discussing matters of moment, from a curmudgeonly perspective. (The ideas posted here do not necessarily represent those of any organization with which I am a part). Rude and insulting remarks will not be published, but civil disagreement is welcome.

Individual achievement, under the audit of the absolute, is the enemy of statism, which claims to be an ersatz deity. When one succeeds by knowledge, ardor, and wisdom--apart from the largess and propaganda of the state--it strikes a blow for freedom, freedom; it strike a blow against Big Brother, Leviathan...Obama. This is because statism cannot take the credit.

Saturday, July 28, 2012

Boston, MA – Mitt Romney today made the following statement on the injunction to prevent the federal government from requiring businesses to cover contraception in health plans:

“Freedom of conscience has won an important victory. Today’s injunction preventing the federal government from forcing one family business from having to choose between keeping its doors open and violating its faith is a step in the right direction. But it is only a step, not the end of the struggle. We must ensure that the same freedom to live according to one’s faith is available to all Americans. If I am elected president, I will never cease fighting for freedom of conscience as it is guaranteed under the First Amendment.”

Monday, July 23, 2012

...education is not merely schooling. It is a lifelong discipline of the individual by himself, encouraged by a reasonable opportunity to lead a good life. Education here is synonymous with civilization. A civilized community is better than the jungle, but civilization is a long slow process which cannot be "given" in a short course." - Jacques Barzun, Teacher in America, p. 9.

Virtuosity (of a certain debased kind) is not truly virtuous, but rather vicious, vane, and vexing to the discerning--those few who are not easily impressed with pyrotechnics, spectacle, and ego feigning to be art.

Saturday, July 21, 2012

This is my response to Krauss's absurd ideas about the Higgs particle, published in the July 16 issue of Newsweek. I sent this in as a letter to the editor.

Lawrence Krauss’s outrageous enthusiasm for the supposed atheistic implications of the discovery of the Higgs particle is misplaced. Even if the Higgs particle is the real McCoy, and thus inflationary cosmology is vindicated, inflationary models cannot be extended to past infinity. While Krauss claims the Higgs particle solves the problem of “creating ‘stuff’ from ‘no stuff,” it does nothing of the kind, since quantum space is still something, and since it appears only after the Big Bang. We still need a Banger.

Friday, July 20, 2012

Obama’s infrastructure argument is easily refuted by what is essentially a controlled social experiment. Roads and schools are the constant. What’s variable is the energy, enterprise, risk-taking, hard work and genius of the individual. It is therefore precisely those individual characteristics, not the communal utilities, that account for the different outcomes. -Charles Krauthammer

‎"Profits may be the most misconceived subject in economics...To many people, even today, high profits are often attributed to high prices charged by those motivated by 'greed.' In reality, most of the great fortunes in American history have resulted from someone's figuring out how to reduce costs, so as to be able to charge lower prices and gain a mass market for the product." - Thomas Sowell, Basic Economics

Accomplished saxophonist, Ravi Coltrane, will be playing at Dazzle on July 28. He is John Coltrane's son, and has developed his own voice. I own and enjoy several of his recordings. Maybe I will see you there.

Thursday, July 12, 2012

Reason #13 to Defeat Barack Obama: the Supreme Court

Roe v. Wade and other early abortion cases left virtually no opportunity for the American

people to protect unborn children through state or federal law. A 7-2 majority of the Court in Roe and its companion case Doe v. Bolton ordained that even abortions late in pregnancy could occur if the abortionist just gave a reason.

But over the years, by electing pro-life presidents and strategically bringing cases to the Court that would make judges re-think their position, the Right to Life movement has shifted the law away from unlimited abortion on demand. Now we have a Supreme Court that allowed a ban on partial-birth abortions, which occur from mid-pregnancy on. And a new Supreme Court has written that states have an “interest in respect for life,” which is something the old Roe Court did not recognize.

Because of this new recognition that the American people have a right, at least in some cases, to protect the lives of unborn children, we have been able to pass state laws that ban abortion after the point in development when an unborn baby can feel pain. Other protective legislation, like Woman’s Right to Know informed consent laws, abortion funding bans, parental notification and consent laws, all combine to reduce abortions and save lives.

But that could all end November 6th. The president we elect that day will have a Supreme Court which on inauguration day will have one 74-year-old justice, two who are 76, and one who is 79. It is very likely that changes in the makeup of the Court will occur during the next four-year presidential term.

If President Obama is re-elected and has the opportunity to place even one additional pro-abortion vote on the Supreme Court, virtually all existing limits on abortion including the Hyde Amendment (which prevents federal taxpayer funding of elective abortions) and the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, likely would be invalidated. It could literally set the pro-life movement’s legislative efforts back 40 years.

The protective laws we’ve passed are a major reason that 400,000 fewer abortions occur in America each year now than in 1990. But Barack Obama wants to take us back to a time when most protective laws were declared unconstitutional by a radical, activist U.S. Supreme Court. If he succeeds, hundreds of thousands more babies could die each year.

If you want to see a Supreme Court that will respect the text and history of the Constitution, and not legislate from the bench, please help the National Right to Life Victory Fund defeat Barack Obama on November 6th. Please donate generously to the work of the Victory Fund. And please share this message and the others in this series of Reasons to Defeat Barack Obama with all your friends who vote.

Melisa Block’s interview with Professor Lawrence
Jacobs about whether the opposition to ObamaCare conveyed many falsehoods.
Jacob’s thesis is that just as we accepted Social Security and Medicare, we
will come to accept ObamaCare if it works out (and, of course, it will—just
like the other programs). This commits the fallacy of false analogy and
misreads history. ObamaCare would eventually make medicine in its totality part of the federal government. This differs from
Social Security and Medicare, which were less radical and extensive. Moreover,
these previous programs are now unsupportable financially! ObamaCare would be far, far more expensive and
unsustainable. Lastly, the earlier opposition to Social Security and Medicare rightly warned about the gradual rise socialism.
We are now seeing socialism face-to-face, and we should refuse it

Monday, July 09, 2012

‎"Scarcity means that everyone's desires cannot be completely satisfied, regardless of which particular economic system or government policy we choose...Therefore competition among people for those resources is inherent. It is not a question whether we like or dislike competition. Scarcity means that we do not have the option to choose whether or not to have an economy in which people compete." - Thomas Sowell, Basic Economics

In my Patheos article on why conservative Christians should vote
for Romney (despite some of his shortcomings), I argued that voting for
"the lesser of two evils" is often required—even if this means
accepting "the evil of two lessers."

Some have taken me to task with a short phrase. "Voting for
the lesser of two evils is still voting for evil." The implication is: do
not vote for Romney, since he is still evil. This argument fails for several
reasons.

First, "the lesser of two evils" means "the better
of the two candidates, even though you are not particularly fond of the better
candidate." Now, if the options were Hitler or Stalin, I'd vote for
neither (and I'm not sure one could claim to find a "lesser evil"
here between these titans of tyranny). Voting for Romney is not voting for evil
per se; it is, rather, voting for a less-than-ideal candidate who ishead and shoulders betterthan the
leftist/statist/authoritarian/economy-destroying/abortion-promoting/America-betraying
Obama.

If Obama is re-elected, he would work far moreevilthan would Romney. The
perpetuation of abortion on demand and the funding of abortion on demand by all
tax-payers isevil. Over
fifty million (50,000,000) unborn humans have already been snuffed out. This is
what Obama would give us, among other ills. Therefore, vote for Romney. It is
not evil. It is necessary.

Second, by taking the supposed high ground and refusing to vote,
one is taking a vote away from the better of the two candidates. Ask yourself:
Which candidate is more likely to honor American ideals such as limited civil
government, a strong national defense, and religious as well as economic
liberty? The answer is Mitt Romney. Voting for him is not evil. It is
necessary.

Friday, July 06, 2012

To all you email-hijackers, identity thieves, spammers, and general Internet miscreants: Repent, before it is too late. God knows and God will reveal all in the End. Take Christ as your justification and mediator. There is no hope anywhere else. Your sins will find you out.

Thursday, July 05, 2012

President George W. Bush set a goal for America. He called for a society where every child would be “welcomed in life and protected in law.”

This compassionate vision of a society which respects the value of every individual is what we work for each and every day at National Right to Life.

But now there’s another president with a different approach. One where the individual is de-valued. Where he or she can be killed at any time during pregnancy. Where government policies can deny a person life-saving medical care if he is sick, elderly or disabled, and where unborn children are denied legal protection.

That’s President Obama’s approach.

Our 54 Reasons to Defeat Barack Obama document why he is the most radically anti-life president in the history of our country. Just look at the ten reasons in this series to date:

Obama gives taxpayer dollars to an organization that assists China's population program, infamous for coerced abortions.*

Obama opposed banning partial-birth abortion.

Obama opposes the bill before Congress to ban sex-selection abortion.

Obama opposed protections for children born alive in an abortion.

Obama has appointed anti-life judges.

Obama has supported keeping late abortions legal, even after the point at which a baby can feel pain.

Obama has disregarded our nation’s fundamental values of life and liberty as expressed in the Declaration of Independence.

*each of these brief articles can be found at www.nrlvictoryfund.org

You might think he can’t get any more anti-life than that. Well, think again.

If Barack Obama wins a second term as president, he will not be restrained by any political calculations about how unpopular his anti-life policies are.

In a second term, Obama could issue executive orders without personal politicalconsequences. And if he has a pro-abortion Congress behind him, he could enact anti-life laws that greatly expand both abortion and rationing.

The National Right to Life Victory Fund exists to see that this does not happen.

Using proven methods to get out the pro-life vote, the National Right to Life Victory Fund will fight every day until November 6th to see that Barack Obama is not re-elected, and that a pro-life Congress represents us in Washington.

You and I are the voice of the vulnerable unborn, who have no voice of their own. Please give generously to the National Right to Life Victory Fund. And please forward this important message to your friends by e-mail, Facebook, etc.

Your voice is powerful! If every American lets it be known what Obama is really doing on the life issues, we can defeat him in November!

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About Me

Nothing on this blog represents the position of Denver Seminary. I am a Christian, philosopher, teacher, writer, and preacher, who is Professor of Philosophy at Denver Seminary. My most recent of my twelve books is Philosophy in Seven Sentences. My magnum opus is Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case for Biblical Faith (InterVarsity Press, 2011). I have published ten others, including Truth Decay and On Jesus. I direct the Christian Apologetics and Ethics MA program at Denver Seminary.